New gun laws won't stop acts of criminal insanity

Clint Decker /

Published Apr 9, 2013 at 05:00AM / Updated Nov 19, 2013 at 12:31AM

I am writing in regard to the gun control issue that has been filling the paper recently.

I know that any parent who loses a child in any manner is devastated by the loss. Not just in unjustified and insane circumstances such as Newtown, school shootings, movie theaters, drive-by shootings, drunk drivers, cases of mistaken identity as in the slaying of the girl in Chicago, and list of avoidable and careless acts continues.

No parent wants to outlive his or her children. Regardless of the age of your child, to a parent that person is always your kid, and you want to protect and care for them no matter what.

Regardless of how you lose your child — to cancer, shootings, accidents, or whatever the circumstances — the loss is tragic to family and friends.

However, I am not sure that you can legislate how criminals and mental misfits will act. No sane person will ever reach the idea to go to a school and carry out acts against the innocent.

No sane person will go to a movie theatre, go to a gathering at the local mall, or have a case of mistaken identity, and kill innocent victims. Part of your responsibility as a sane and rational person is to control the moments of rage, insanity, or other feelings you may have, and choose not to let them control your actions.

And I don’t believe that sane and rational people will ever be able to legislate that the misfits behave better. It is already illegal to kill innocent people. You can’t use a handgun while committing a crime. You have to have background checks to purchase some guns. The list of rules that people must abide by is lengthy.

But I don’t understand how telling criminals and misfits that it is now even more illegal is going to help. Maybe we will feel better about ourselves, and think that in the past the rules weren’t as meaningful. But now we really mean that it is illegal to kill innocent people, and that it is really illegal now to commit crime with a handgun, and that now the convicted felons really can’t have guns, etc. I worry that the criminals and mental misfits really won’t care!

Some criminals have killed their own mothers to get guns, or whatever justification the killer felt for the heinous crime. The young lady in Chicago had recently performed at the presidential inauguration and was only seeking shelter from a storm when she was gunned down. No sane person ever decides to shoot a group of kids trying to stay dry, and wonder who we killed later. The killers later claim she was just a case of mistaken identity. Examples of actions that the insane or mental misfits carry out are rampant.

We can do our best and possibly make some concessions about more rules for gun ownership. We can legislate that people should be more careful and lock up their guns at home, and try to keep the guns from the people intending to harm the innocent. We can make it more illegal for criminals to carry out their disgusting acts against innocent victims. And more rules that most people already abide by.

Most normal people try their best to be safe, keep their children safe, and live their life to not harm innocent people. But I don’t believe that you can legislate that those people, who don’t care, should care.

And I am not sure that a sane and rational public can ever fully understand what others are going to do, or how they will act. We can guide and direct how we want people to act, but I don’t know that we can make the misfits behave as we believe they should.

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